Indiana Department of Natural Resources sent this bulletin at 08/25/2021 07:25 AM EDT
Weekly Review for August 25, 2021
This informal report by the Division of Entomology & Plant Pathology is a commentary on insects, diseases, and curiosities division staff encounter on a week-to-week basis. Comments and questions about this report are welcome and can be sent to your respective Inspector.
Japanese beetles are still very active. While inspecting in Adams, LaGrange, and Wells counties, I observed adults feeding on a variety of trees and shrubs including roses, elm, blackberry, grape, peach, hydrangea, crabapple, cherry, filbert, pussy willow, linden, Norway maple, and bald cypress. The elms and linden were the most severely damaged. Tar spot was heavy on Norway, red and 'Autumn Blaze' maples. Powdery mildew was present to varying degrees on plane tree, tulip poplar, dogwood, and Columbine. In Adams County aphids were feeding heavily on mums. On some plants many of the stems at the base of the plant had hundreds of aphids on them. Damage from red headed flea beetle was frequently encountered on weigela, sweetspire (Itea), hydrangea, and ninebark. Additionally, bagworms were found on blue spruce and arborvitae and leafy bud gall midge was found on chinkapin oak.
I have included a photo of anthracnose on pecan, caused by the fungus Colletotrichum sp. Anthracnose may reduce yield and quality of nuts. Management with fungicides may be needed. Other pest and disease issues may cause similar symptoms on pecan, so samples of leaves with suspect symptoms should be laboratory tested for confirmation of the correct problem.
Beekeepers need to watch this heat, not so much for the bees, but yourself. The best time to get in the hives is 7 to 10 a.m. After 10, it is starting to get too hot to work your bees.
Many beekeepers are taking off honey. Some honey is still coming into hives in certain parts of the state, mostly in places that received some rain the past couple of weeks.
Beekeepers need to get in their hives to inspect the brood area. Make sure the queen has room to move down and lay eggs in the bottom brood box. Watch out for frames that contain all old pollen. These frames should be replaced if you have drawn comb to replace it with. If do not have drawn comb, move these frames to position 1 or 10 in a 10-frame brood hive and make a note to replace these next spring.
It is also time to get Varroa mite treatments started. While this week is too hot to treat with Formic Pro, the other treatments should be fine. If you are going to use ApiVar strips, you need to get them in now so you can take the strips out by the end of September.
